Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.
- KJV And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
- NKJV But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
- NASB Now the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the men had built.
- NLT But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Yahweh came down to see the city and tower the people were building. God graciously, and ironically, condescends to inspect their lofty work.
Overview
The image of God coming down to see the tower that was meant to reach heaven exposes the smallness of human pride before the Almighty. What seemed great to the builders required God to stoop even to observe it. This divine condescension to examine human affairs anticipates the greater coming down of God in Christ, who descends in mercy to save.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 33:13–14The LORD looks down from heaven; He sees all the sons of men.
- Gen 18:21I will go down to see if their actions fully justify the outcry that has reached Me. If not, I will find out.”
- John 3:13No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.
- Heb 4:13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
- Jer 23:23–24“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away?”
- Exod 19:11and be prepared by the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
- Exod 19:20The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the summit. So Moses went up,
- Ps 11:4The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD is on His heavenly throne. His eyes are watching closely; they examine the sons of men.
- Exod 3:8I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
- Exod 19:18Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. And the smoke rose like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 11:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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